What neither his mom nor I knew is that at one point, in order to set Colm up, Cboy asked for remote control of Colm's computer. During that remote session, Cboy may have implanted malware. Or he hacked Colm's password. Either way, he hacked all the home's computers, phones and Wi-Fi.

Then, the pranks started. On March 18, a procession of pizza delivery people from every pizzeria in the city began appearing at the door. All bore a large pepperoni with anchovies.

Things intensified. The hacker cracked Joy's iPhone and got her contacts. "They" all called her by Skype at all hours, more than 40 in one 24-hour period, day and night, every day.

But it was always "Curtis," asking to speak with Colm. Joy told him to bug off. But he kept it up, a full-time, relentless, daily peppering. "I think he enjoyed tormenting me," Joy said.

Then the pranks started crossing the line. Identifying himself as Colm, Curtis sent numerous girls online requests for nude photos.

Using voice disguise technology, and a 911 caller ID, a caller said, "This is the Stockton Police Department. Your house is surrounded. Come out with your hands up."

He posted Joy's car for sale on Craigslist.org. Several buyers, including at least one who said he paid for it, called to arrange to pick it up along with the pink slip.

Calling police 911, using Colm's name, Curtis said he had taken hostages at Joy and Colm's home. He had an AK-47. The house was ringed with explosives. He demanded $100,000 or he would blow the hostages up.

SPD surrounded the house.

On April 19th, he called Sierra Middle School. Saying it was Colm, he said he had planted a bomb. Sierra, Larssen High School and three wings of Lincoln High were evacuated.

Colm found himself standing with hundreds of students and numerous police on an athletic field wondering how a gentle game like Minecraft could lead to such mayhem.

Every SWAT deployment costs about $10,000. Thanks to Curtis, the SPD rolled out SWAT, the bomb squad, homicide detectives and patrol officers over and over.

And that is only half of it. "Not only does it drain the police resources, it makes them unavailable for the real emergencies. That's where it's a threat to the public," Jones said.

On a hacker website, Curtis posted Joy's address, social security number, banking PIN numbers. He hung her out like chum for every shark on the planet.

Someone filed for and got her income tax return - thousands of dollars. Dozens of people have applied for credit cards in her name. Her credit rating plunged.

Joy lost it. "Look, you stupid (bleep)ing punk-ass," she shouted into the phone when he called again. "This isn't funny anymore. Nothing you're doing is funny."

Usually, Curtis was smug. He seemed supremely confident his tech sophistication made him uncatchable. But for once, he lost his cool.

"Don't call me a kid!" he snapped. "I am not a kid! I am a grown man!"

Joy told him she would see him in jail. Curtis reverted to sneering superiority. "Good luck dude," he taunted. "Better people than you have tried."

In fact, Law enforcement agencies from Riverside to Melbourne, Fla., were seeking the swatter: eight states and Canada. The guy had been running his shtick all over the country.

Riverside had called in the FBI.

But the SPD played a big role. Its high-tech crimes unit did digital forensics on my family's computers. The analysis pointed toward a Canadian user.

Plus Curtis signed his hacker website post probablyonion2. That sounded like a Twitter handle. The SPD got warrants for Twitter and Skype.

The FBI took over.

Joy and Colm were running ragged. "It's putting a strain on my employment," said Joy, who missed work trying to rectify the identity theft. "I couldn't sleep. I was paranoid. The cops were at my house every day for a week. The neighbors were wondering what the hell was going on."

Apparently feeling invincible, probablyonion2 tweeted an ad for swatting services. He bragged he was making money closing down schools for kids ducking tests. He taunted the cops and posted remarks like, "Come and get me."

He sent Joy a T-shirt. It read, "I bought this T-shirt with your credit card."

Probablyonion2's last tweet was another poke at police. "Still awaiting for the horsies to bash down my door," he jeered, alluding to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

And that is just about what they did. Police arrested a 16-year-old home school student in a suburb of Ottawa, Ontario on Thursday . Canadian media identified him as Curtis Gervais.

"People living in Barrhaven (Ottawa) said they saw a teen walking down the street with his parents when undercover police officers jumped out of a car and brought him to the ground," one paper reported.

That paragraph makes me indescribably happy.

Police carted a big array of sophisticated electronic gear from the young man's house. Also firearms.

Two other youths were arrested, too.

The young man has been charged with a staggering 60 criminal offenses including: public mischief, mischief to property, utter death threats, conveying false information with intent to alarm. More charges are expected.

Contact columnist Michael Fitzgerald at (209) 546-8270 or michaelf@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/fitzgeraldblog and on Twitter @Stocktonopolis.